I think they do get it, as the ax is falling.
Comments of “envy” by the union sec-treas are typical of the Left (they are in the business of envy to “get out the vote”) — however, NOW they finger those who fund their retirement as envious.
Looks like the vote may be shifting for such a “foolish” comment to be said publicly.
Europeans shift long-held view that social benefits are untouchable
Edward Cody, April 24, 2011 - Washington Post
“In the new reality, workers have been forced to accept salary freezes, decreased hours, postponed retirements and health-care reductions. Employees at Fiat’s historic Mirafiori plant in Turin, rolling back a tradition of union privileges, even pledged to cut back on the number of workers who call in sick when the local soccer team has a match.
Unlike in the United States, where conservatives are so resolved to cut spending that they threatened a government shutdown, Western Europe’s generous welfare programs had generally been embraced by the right as well as the left. Against that background, the new wave of cutbacks seems to signal a dramatic shift in attitude toward benefits that many Europeans had come to see as a birthright and that politicians of any stripe could challenge only at the risk of their careers.
Many Europeans, particularly in left-wing political parties and labor unions, have interpreted the new winds as a triumph for ruthless free-market extremists who want to protect private wealth from higher taxes and as an aberration that can be undone by electing governments that are more worker-friendly. But many others, resigned to the new reality of globalization, have come to view the shift as the end of a golden era, perhaps never to be revived.......”
All the left does is preach envy and class warfare. They should expect it.